Dear Editor,
To all the wonderful people who use transit in West and North Vancouver,
After nearly 10 years with West Vancouver’s transit I am retiring, and I appreciate this opportunity to thank everyone who uses transit on a regular or casual basis: for your consideration in helping seniors and those less-abled to get on and get seated; for your greetings and your thank-you’s; for choosing transit over driving; and for putting up with the many inconveniences of transit.
As one of the few bus drivers who doesn’t own a car, who uses SkyTrain, SeaBus and bus to get to and from our depot at the foot of Lloyd Avenue, I know what it is like to be waiting for a bus running late, or one that doesn’t show at all; to be splashed by a bus pulling in too fast; to have a bus so full that it seems impossible it could fit one more person.
One of the great benefits of my job has been to meet people from all backgrounds, to see youngsters excited to greet the bus and learn how to use it on their own, and to being appreciated for the sometimes stressful job of moving you from home to work to hospital to shop to park (and back).
West Vancouver Transit (a.k.a. Blue Bus) has been a part of the North Shore since 1912. I am proud of my short association with the drivers, mechanics, service technicians, dispatchers, supervisors and even, yes, even management, all of whom are good people striving to do a difficult job.
For as long as I’ve been with Blue Bus there have been rumours (often coming from CMBC drivers) that we would soon be amalgamated into Coast Mountain’s service. There may be some benefit to this, but you, the people who use this service the most, would lose the personal touch of knowing the drivers.
Perhaps instead, WVT should become North Shore Transit and take over all the West and North Vancouver bus service (except SeaBus)!
Thank you all, it’s been a great ride.
Michael Cox,
North Vancouver
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